Rhys
Rhys is an original character in Telltale Games' Tales from the Borderlands. He serves as one of the two playable protagonists alongside Fiona. Character Nothing is really known about Rhys besides the fact that he has worked at Hyperion for many years. He also had a girlfriend named Stacey, but they broke up. His goal is to run Hyperion and to become like his idol, Handsome Jack. He is always interested in being the center of attention. But he has an understanding mind about his position as a Hyperion for Pandorians that see him as a supporter to Handsome Jacks havoc on Pandora. His best friends Vaughn and Yvette helps him with his plan after he was "promoted" to Assistant Vice Janitor by Hugo Vasquez, which led to the events of Zer0 Sum. He is currently blacklisted together with Vaughn by Hyperion for theft. Tales from the Borderlands "Zer0 Sum" The episode begins with Rhys walking around in a desert. He calls out to Fiona, claiming that they can work something out. He looks around and a man appears, walking towards him. "Fiona, what is there, some sort of radiation leak I don't know about?" He jokingly says, only to get knocked out by the man. He wakes up, his face bruised and he is being dragged through the desert with his torso tied. The kidnapper drags him by the legs. The player can ask the kidnapper a question, to which he responds, "I ask the questions." Rhys asks if he can ask himself that question. The kidnapper kicks him, claiming that he isn't a patient person and orders him to start at the beginning of his involvement with the Gortys Project. Rhys talks about his life at Hyperion, and his friend Vaughn. Rhys claims that Handsome Jack was the baddest guy of them all, and that he wanted to be just like him. Vaughn helps Rhys prepare for his supposed promotion by Henderson. Rhys goes into Henderson's office and is surprised to see Hugo Vasquez as the new boss. Hugo is ordering a black car from a guy named Jerry. Hugo informs Rhys that his promotion is coming and gives him the title of Assistant Vice Janitor. Hugo then reveals he threw Henderson out an airlock. Rhys can say something in threatening manner, which will make Vasquez punch him in the face. Rhys will then walk out, and tell Yvette and Vaughn what happened. Rhys tells them about Hugo's phone call about him buying a vault key. They decide to go to Pandora to buy the vault key, with the help of Vaughn gathering ten million and Yvette requisitioning transport. At Pandora, Rhys and Vaughn ask for directions to the World of Curiosities, where Vasquez was supposed to make the deal for the vault key. Rudiger sees that the two Hyperion, and claims that they ruined Pandora. Rudiger will spot the money case that Vaughn has handcuffed to himself. Rudiger then call his fellow bandits, and Vaughn tells Rhys to call Yvette and prime the loader bot. It is up to the player to decide what to equip the loader bot with. Rudiger will grab the money case, and gets inside the car they drove here. Rudiger drives away, with Vaughn's hand still cuffed to the case. Rhys then chases after it, ordering the loader bot to chase after it. He runs into a few bandits, and hits them with the stun baton provided by Yvette. Later, he sees the loader bot holding the Hyperion car. Rhys asks Rudiger where Vaughn is. "How the hell should I know? Your bot threw us both out!" He claims. Rudiger tries to hit Rhys with his cleaver, which Rhys deflects, killing a bandit. Rudiger raises his hand in surrender, but is hit by Rhys and he flies away and hits a sign, which makes it fall and reveal the World of Curiosities. Rhys will then tell the loader bot to put the car down. Rhys and Vaughn run to a gate, which the loader bot carries them over. He gives them a thumbs up. The player will then get the choice to evacuate the loader bot or self-destruct it. Rhys will say that he will name his first born loader bot. The two of them walk through the room, and once they reach the door, they realize it's locked. They look around for the key and Shade jumps out of nowhere. He leads them to August, the guy with the vault key. Rhys can say that he's in charge now, or that Vasquez is sick. Sasha will say that she's not sure of Rhys and Vaughn. Rhys tells her that they are doing it to get at one of the biggest Hyperion scumbags. Sasha eventually goes along with it, and August decides to not do the deal. Rhys can choose to blow his mind or break his heart. (Not literally) Then it cuts off, back to the present. With Fiona saying, "What a steaming load of skag crap." The masked kidnapper brings them in, and Fiona tells her side of the story. While Fiona is hiding in the air vent, she watches over the deal between Rhys, Vaughn and August, Sasha. When Zer0 arrives, Rhys and Vaughn try to escape in Fiona and Sasha's caravan, where they are caught. They take off when August starts shooting at them. Sasha is about to push Rhys out of the caravan, but Vaughn claims he can track the money. Rhys insert Dr. Nakayama's ID and hears a voice "Did you think you could follow in my footsteps?" He wakes up and sees Felix, Sasha, Vaughn and Fiona observing a bandit camp. They take out a few bandits and get inside. Felix decides to stay behind with the caravan. Sasha and Rhys open the hatch and climb down it. Fiona and Vaughn shut it so the Mask Vendor doesn't catch Rhys and Sasha. Meanwhile, Rhys is hacking a computer while Sasha asks to see his stun baton. Rhys can choose to trust her or not with it. Zer0 appears, and joins Rhys and Sasha in the battlefield of the race while Fiona and Vaughn are on the race with the Psycho Driver. Rhys runs after a psycho who grabs the money, which immediately gets eaten by a giant skag. Rhys gets Zer0's sword, cutting the giant skag open. Rhys goes for the money, but it flies off because of Bossanova's woofer. It lands on a car in the race. Rhys sees the money blew up and he yells, "NO! no!" Zer0 then kills Bossanova and he walks off, talking to Mad Moxxi about the Gortys Project. The loader bot comes back whether you self-destructed him or not. If you self-destructed him, he'll say, "You suck." If you evacuated him, he'll say, "Righteous father! I have found you!" Either way, Rhys falls down a hole while the loader bot advises, "Try to roll with the fall!" He wakes up, hearing Vaughn calling out to see if he's okay. Rhys says Atlas tech is down here, which causes them to discover the Gortys Project. It automatically attaches itself and reveals some sort of map. The voice that Rhys has been hearing before reveals to be Handsome Jack's voice. "This, ladies and gentlemen... is the Gortys Project. And it's going to lead us to a vault. And then I'll probably kill you." Rhys looks at the AI form of Handsome Jack, stunned. "Atlas Mugged" After Jack fully appears to Rhys, Jack takes Rhys upstairs, where Rhys informs Jack that he was killed. Jack, in denial, will refuse that he had died. He then attempts to strangle Rhys, resulting in Rhys falling off the balcony back onto the main floor with Fiona, Sasha, and Vaughn. After Rhys falls, Hyperion begins to send moonshots after the crew. With the help of Loaderbot, they escape the facility and drive away in the caravan, only for them to be caught in an intense fight with a Rakk Hive and dodging moonshots. Rhys activates the carvans boost to escape the moonshots and Rakk Hive, but due to the poor condition of the Caravan from the moonshots, Rhys and Vaughn fly our the back, becoming separate from Fiona and Sasha. Afterwords, Rhys wakes up in the desert with Vaughn, who begins to confesses that he enjoys the life on Pandora. Rhys then receives a call form Yvette, where he can ask for her assistants. Jack then reappears, and an option to tell Vaughn about Jack occurs. Rhys, Vaughn, and Jack then begin to walk through the desert to find the girls, when Vasquez comes down from Helios, to confront them. Vasquez brings up the deal that he had offered Rhys early, but it is then revealed that he offered the same deal to Vaughn, which he accepted, but only to try to shake Vasquez off of them. Jack, enhances Rhys' Echo-eye to hack Vasquez's car or gun in order to escape, but Jack soon discovers that he can also control Rhys' arm afterwords. After Vasquez begins to get up after being stunned, loaderbot arrives once again to save them. Rhys is then presented a choice to either go to Hollow Point to meet up with Fiona, or to go to Old Haven in search of the new Atlas Facility. After choosing, Vaughn will ask for Rhys' forgiveness for selling him out for Vasquez, although he wasn't planning on going through with it. Vaughn offer's Rhys a bro-fist, which the player can agree on or not. If Rhys decided to go to Hollow Point first, he meets up with Fiona and Sasha in Scooter's garage and they then proceed to Old Haven. In Old Haven Rhys solves a small puzzle evolving fuses around the area in order to reveal the facility. Once completed, the gang enters the facility. If Rhys went to Old Haven first, after revealing the facility, August will confront Rhys. Once inside, Rhys, Fiona, Vaughn, and Sasha are all captured by Vasquez, August, and their goons. Vazquez and August want the Gortys cores to be completed, and take Rhys and Fiona down two seperate hall ways, Rhys with Vasquez, Fiona with August. While walking with Vasquez, Vasquez reveals how he always wanted to "help" Rhys by being a figure in power, as he was inspired by Handsome Jack. Jack will realize where he remembers Vasquez from, and reveals how he nick named him wallet head, due to his hair implants. At the end of the hall, Rhys will place his gortys core half into the machine and is taken into the center of the facility with the platform he was on. Fiona's platform will then reach and combine with Rhys'. They have a small talk, but then are forced to make the cores complete. They two begin to press the parts together, until they finish and a small metal ball is produced. Fiona tells Rhys to grab it, but Rhys drops it, but catches it before it falls off the edge. However this causes security to be alerted, and drones fly out ready to fire. The drones target everyone, including Vasquez, August, Sasha, and Vaughn. Vasquez and August now point their guns at Vaughn and Sasha, wanting Rhys and Fiona to fix what they did. Fiona will take the ball away from Rhys and him to trust her. Fiona will take out a flashbang form Felix's hideout and threaten August and Vasquez. This then makes Jack tell Rhys to trust him, because he can make Rhys take over the drones and get them out of the situation. Rhys is then faced with the choice to either trust Fiona or to trust Jack. If Rhys trusts Fiona, she will smile at Rhys and say "No one lives forever." and then throw the flashbang into the air, until it lands back on the platform and explodes. If Rhys trust Jack, Jack will take control of Rhys' cybernetics and take over the drones and exclaim "Hail to the king, baby!" "Catch A Ride" Rhys will appear in this episode. Killed Victims * Thousands of Hyperion empolyees (Caused) * Numerous accounts of bandits * Numerous accounts of skags * Rakk hive * Gary (Indirectly Caused) (Determinant) * Yvette (Determinant) * Handsome Jack (Determinant) Weapons * Hyperion JR4000 stun baton Relationships Vaughn Vaughn is introduced in the beginning of the series as Rhys' best friend and fellow co-worker at Hyperion, the two "stabbing a lot of backs to get to where we are". The two appear to completely trust in one another, however in 'Atlas Mugged' it is revealed that Vaughn accepted a deal from Vasquez to betray Rhys, with Vaughn claiming it was just to keep Vasquez "off our backs". Rhys' decision on whether or not to forgive Vaughn afterwards determines a greater bond or strained friendship, respectively. Regardless of the player's decision, Rhys is shown to care emphatically for Vaughn anyways, becoming greatly distressed when Vaughn is held at gunpoint and potentially when Vaughn is paralyzed by one of the Atlas robots (if the player sided with Fiona in the previous episode). If the player sided with Jack in the previous episode, Vaughn may have a conversation with Rhys expressing his fears that Rhys is leaving him behind. The player will have the option to reassure Vaughn of their friendship and Rhys will be hugged by him. Rhys' relief to hear Vaughn's safety in 'Escape Plan Bravo' shows that they are still, indeed, best friends, despite Vaughn's possible betrayal. In 'Vault Of The Traveler' both Vaughn and Rhys are overjoyed to see each other safe when they are reunited, regardless of player choices. Yvette Yvette is shown to be Rhys' "other best friend", being a fellow co-worker and apparent "lunch leech". Rhys trusts Yvette throughout the first half of the series with information on his and Vaughn's whereabouts and situation, however that trust would be shown to be displaced as in episode 4, Yvette reveals to Rhys (believing him to be Vasquez) her deal with Vasquez to betray them - denying supplies and giving away their location to get the A.I of Handsome Jack from him - shocked Rhys to the core and he also became angry of her. Yvette, while imprisoned, will claim that her betrayal was simply part of a bigger plan to keep him safe. Rhys will have the option to free her, or leave her in the cell (ultimately leading to her death). If she is freed, she helps Rhys to shut down the power core only to almost be sucked out into space. Rhys can decide to save her, or let her be sucked out into space. If saved, Yvette will reunite with Rhys in the present where they seem to be on good terms. Fiona Rhys relationship with Fiona is not heavily shown but they seem to initally (to some extent) dislike each other due to Rhys being a part of Hyperion and Fiona being a Con Artist on Pandora, as well as both of them being on opposite ends of the "Vault Key" scam. Throughout the series the two can potentially be seen becoming closer, with Fiona ignoring Rhys' Hyperion status and calling him her friend and Rhys placing his faith in Fiona (both determinant). Presently, however, they seem to despise one another immensely, with Fiona going as far as to physically hurt him. This was later revealed to be due to Rhys keeping Handsome Jack a secret. After telling their tales, Rhys and Fiona become friends once more. Rhys can place his trust in Fiona and determinately admit he has feelings for Sasha, or even hint that he has feelings for "somebody else"; It's heavily implied he's referring to Fiona due to his facial expression towards her. Nevertheless, they will enter the Vault together and talk about their past, present and future, and try and open the Vault Treasure between them, only to be teleported away. What happened to them next is unknown, but possibly they found the true treasure of the Vault of the Traveler. Sasha Rhys relationship with Sasha is dynamic depending on your choices. Initially, Sasha dislikes Rhys because he works for Hyperion. Depending on the choices made, she can become more open and friendly with Rhys after they become separated from Fiona and Vaughn in Zer0 Sum, particularly if Rhys decides to let her see his stun baton or not. During their time in the Dome, depending on the player's in-game choices, Rhys can show a romantic interest in her or just stick to being friends with her. Although he may anger her if he trusted Jack, who slaps her behind. In spite of this, Sasha and Rhys become much closer, regardless of Rhys' working for Hyperion. They also share a hug when reunited in The Vault of the Traveler if Rhys chose to reject Hyperion in Escape Plan Bravo. At the end of the game, depending on the player's choices on Rhys and Fiona's decisions, Rhys can admit to liking Sasha and get Fiona's approval of their relationship or Fiona can tell Rhys to stay away from Sasha. Loader Bot Their relationship is highly determinant, He follows Rhys orders because it is what he was made for. When he later shows up he can be either happy or not too happy of seeing Rhys. In episode two his behavior towards Rhys is determinant, if Rhys didn't blow him up he will treat Rhys as a very good friend, even partaking in a brofist, but if Rhys blew him up, he will constantly take opportunities to emotionally and physically hurt Rhys in a passive aggressive manner. Whether or not Rhys and Loader Bot bring closure to this is determined when Rhys needs Loader Bot's help to open an Atlas Facility door. Handsome Jack Handsome Jack is Rhys' idol - the latter modelling his look after the late President of Hyperion. According to Vaughn, Rhys is completely obsessed (though Rhys claims it's merely inspiration) with Jack, having posters of him plastered all throughout his office. Rhys' relationship, more-so his attitude toward Handsome Jack (or Nakayama's A.I., to be specific) is determinant, from Rhys either respecting Jack, desiring to place him back onto his throne on Helios, to fearing Jack, and distrusting his former boss. Throughout the series, Rhys is given the option on whether or not to trust Jack on numerous occasions, greatly impacting their relationship. Trusting Handsome Jack assumes a sort of mentor-student relationship, where Jack acknowledges the similarities between the two, and (apparently) believes Rhys to be the inheritor of Handsome Jack's work. Distrusting Jack, however, shows Rhys' fast growing disdain for Jack and his misdeeds, typically accredited to the latter's dying alone, without any friends or family, and as one of the "bad guys". Before Jack was a hologram, he apparently spit on Rhys once when passing in the hallway. Hugo Vasquez Rhys relationship with Vasquez is quite bitter. They both hate each other. After Vasquez is shot by Vallory, he became shocked but is relieved that the man who tried to kill him is gone. When Rhys was assuming as Vasquez up on Helios he was caring on his "legacy" by using Vasquez sarcasm. Trivia * He is voiced by Troy Baker, who also voices Joel in The Last of Us (Ashley Jonhson, who also voices Ellie in The Last of Us, is Gortys' voice actor), Snow Villiers in the Final Fantasy XIII trilogy, Delsin Rowe in InFamous: Second Son (Laura Bailey, who also voices Serah Farron and Abigail "Fetch" Walker in the respective games is Fiona's voice actor). * In the E3 trailer, he is voiced by Sam Witwer. * As of now, Tales From The Borderlands is the only Telltale game to have determinant romance options. Appearances Tales from the Borderlands * Zer0 Sum * Atlas Mugged * Catch A Ride * Escape Plan Bravo * The Vault of the Traveler Category:Characters Category:Zer0 Sum Characters Category:Atlas Mugged Characters Category:Catch A Ride Characters Category:Escape Plan Bravo Characters Category:The Vault of the Traveler Characters Category:Alive